I am flying solo this weekend. So after tube steaks for lunch I decided to go to the other extreme and treat myself to a prime grade rib-eye. Rib-eye is my favorite cut and I had already picked out a recipe called Rib-eye with Shallots & Garlic from the Big Green Egg Cookbook. When I headed out to the StupidMarket I decided to head to the Butcher Shop instead and treat myself well.

Iâ€™ll let the pictures tell the story of the cook, but Iâ€™ll relay my interesting and lucky experience here. When I went out to grill at supper time the sun had disappeared and off in the distance there were some darkish clouds. In the 10 minutes I was outside cooking the steak it got pitch black. The screen door to the Kitchen had just closed behind me and I heard a whooshing noise. It was the rain going from 0 to the heaviest rain Iâ€™ve ever seen. I missed it by seconds. I could no longer see the house across the street. It looked like a cloud had descended on the street. I was letting the steak rest for 5 minutes and I reached into the oven to remove the fries and there was a flash of lightning, instant thunder and no lights. This storm was almost as bad as when a tornado and severe thunderstorm passed through town when I was in High School. It is three hours later and I still have no lights, my backyard is flooded and several big trees are down deep in the woods behind my house. The pictures of the plated steak was taken in the pitch dark. Thanks goodness for the infra red auto-focus assist light on my detachable flash. It allowed my camera to see when I couldnâ€™t. The is was the best steak Iâ€™ve ever eaten and I never did see it. My lanterns were in the basement and I wanted to eat the steak while it was hot. Onto the pictures...

The glare from the olive oil is hiding some of the marbling, but this is a one pound rib-eye seasoned with olive oil, Kosher salt and black pepper

The finished sauce is allowed to cool for 30 minutes and is divided. Half is used to baste the steak on the grill and half is applied to the finished steak at the table.

My first steak made on the Egg. The Egg was preheated to 550 degrees and I have the Cast Iron Grill Grates in. Hoping for some good grill marks.

The steak was cooked for 4 minutes per side with a quarter turn midway through to lay on some crosshatched grill marks. Both sides of the steak were basted with the butter sauce while on the grill.

The steak has rested for 5 minutes and it is time to eat. By now my lights were out and I am sitting in the dark (except for the flashes of lightning.) The last thing to do is to put on some of the butter sauce.

The steak has been brushed with the butter sauce

This was the best steak I have every made or eaten. Although I couldnâ€™t see it at the time, it was a perfect medium rare. The steak had a nice buttery coating over a crispy outer crust. My gaser can get up near 1,000 degrees in the hot weather so this was a draw in terms of the crust. The inside was moist and VERY juicy. This was the biggest difference for me: just how moist this steak was vs. any other Iâ€™ve grilled on my gasser.

Thanks everyone for looking at my posts and putting up with my egg-zuberance. Pssst don't tell Brad I made that pun!

Griffin wrote:

Gorgeous. I'm amazed at those final pictures. Hhell, your pictures in the dark look better than my pictures in the light.

That was one of the stranger experiences, eating something you really couldn't see the details of. Then when I developed the pics on my laptop seeing what it actually looked like. I started thinking of those air freshener commercials where they put blindfolded folks in nasty settings...

ScreamingChicken wrote:

Perfectly done steak, and the shallot sauce sounds really good, too. How strong was the flavor?

The main flavor from that sauce actually came from the garlic, the shallots were more of an aftertaste.

Now that you have experienced it at home (and for cheap), you don't have to pay to go to one of those dining in pitch black restarurants.

:D Yes and I don't have to put up with attitude, slow service, or meat that's not cooked the way I like it for a price that's not the way I like it either.

Jim

Jim,

I'm with you on that!!! In fact, my wife grimaces when a steak is brought to me in a restaurant because I'm not hesitant to return a steak that is not cooked properly, especially when you look at the price. As I commented earlier, your results sure looked good